A good science fiction novel takes you on a journey to places where you can't possibly go; an incredible science fiction novel shows you how to get there.

Passengers to Zeta Nine by Peter Salisbury is of the latter sort. In this story about future explorers to a distant planet called Zeta Nine, Salisbury uses his scientific background in describing the discovery of a presumably uninhabited planet. His vehicle, aptly named "Explorer", has been sent on a journey of 120 years to explore the distant planet. Interestingly, there are no humans (as we know them) on-board this high tech ship. When Explorer achieves its orbit above Zeta Nine, its computers signal the creation of human pioneers using stored DNA records and mind patterns.

Salisbury uses precise language to describe the various technologies in his novel. At first, the reader will say, "That is just fiction!" But as she reads further, it dawns on her that she had read or heard on the news that the exact process described by Salisbury is currently being developed in some obscure laboratory at some university somewhere. The technology may not be commercially viable or necessarily socially acceptable at this time, but that is a question best left to bioethicists or engineers to argue at some pedantic symposium as they sit on a stage behind a long table, draped with a white cloth.

Although I rave about the technical aspects of this story, the story itself is about two reconstituted adult pioneers' struggle to understand the new world into which they have been reborn. The story has elements of intrigue and conflicting motives. Our pioneers must deal with demands from afar while trying to absorb the tremendous mysteries that confront them on Zeta Nine. What will be their undoing: the unknown but fascinating and dangerous new world, or the Machiavellian plots from the old? This is a quick read and one that leaves the reader wanting to learn more about Raife and Nancy's future adventures on Zeta Nine.